Turkish police detain activists at anti-Israel rally over Jerusalem

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkish riot police on Saturday detained a dozen activists at a protest in Istanbul denouncing Israel and the United States after Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.

Holding banners such as “against imperialism, Zionism and their domestic partners,” the protesters gathered in Kadikoy on the Asian side of Istanbul.

Police moved in and to detain around a dozen protesters, pinning some face down on the ground and wrenching the hands of others behind their backs.

Protests by religious conservative Turkish groups against the US move to recognize Jerusalem have proceeded peacefully in Turkey in recent days.

Pro-Palestinian protesters also held Muslim prayers outside the Hagia Sophia, a former Byzantine church that was turned into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul but is now a museum.

“We want the Palestinian people and the Muslim people to find a free Jerusalem. We want the Israeli occupier to leave it. We want to denounce with all our means the unfair decision,” said protester Muzeyfe Altug.

Turkey’s religiously conservative Saadet (Felicity) Party is also due to hold a mass rally in Istanbul over Jerusalem on Sunday.

In a Wednesday address from the White House, Trump defied worldwide warnings and insisted that after repeated failures to achieve peace a new approach was long overdue, describing his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the seat of Israel’s government as merely based on reality.

The move was hailed by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by leaders across much of the Israeli political spectrum. Trump stressed that he was not specifying the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city, and called for no change in the status quo at the city’s holy sites.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led opposition to the move has called a summit of Islamic countries on December 13 in Istanbul.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.